Gainsborough Hotel

Hotel

Everything was great, except for the key card had to be reactivated daily. Also one day we had the do not disturb sign and they went in the room anyways. Otherwise though the location is superb. Only a few minutes walk to South Kensington underground or Gloucester Road underground. Highly recommend!

Old building and it shows. Small rooms. No air-conditioning. Gets unbearable to sit in the room in the afternoon. Great location. And very helpful staff.

Price Performance Is not right. Too expensive for Comfort. Location of the Hotel, however, is good, given on a Side Street.

Great location close to the tube, museums and Hyde Park. Reasonably clean and good customer service.

Great location! But staff mixed up reservation, had to call maintenence to fix hot water. Room was adequate but threadbare.

Les hôtesses are very kind. The hotel is old and the 4 stars are not worth it.

Nice hotel reasonable price for the area and very pleasant and helpful staff.

An OK hotel with a brilliant central London location. Easy walking distance to the Science Museum, Natural History Museum and the V&A. The bedroom was neat and tidy but the bathroom could do with some attention. There is a free coffee machine in the reception area but be aware that breakfast is served at their sister hotel which is located across the road. There is no hotel parking on site but the on street residential parking is free between 10:30pm and 8:30am. There is a small lift up to the upper floors but there are 4 steps up to the hotel front door.

Very well located Hotel in the lower part of Hide Park (South Kensington), very close to Metro station and several buses to downtown, a few meters away are the natural science museums, Victoria and Albert and history. The rooms were very good and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

Decent place. Accessable paid parking near by. Access to tube as well. The staffs were extremely friendly.

Good location. Comfy beds. Staff were polite but especially in breakfast room English was too poor to understand my order, cold buffet with cereals juice and breads should be on a help yourself basis. I asked for fresh fruit and natural yoghurt and was brought back French toast bacon and maple syrup. Asked for marmalade to be told 'we not have' yet on a used table beside me was a dish with marmalade I was clearly not understood. The room tea and coffee tray was not only replaced every two days of our stay. No biscuits like other hotels we've stayed in. Reception is too small and when we arrived our rooms weren't ready, we went off came back a couple of hours later and they still weren't ready. We were right beside the lift and the noise of it going up and down was awful… definitely not impressed with this hotel.

Amazing location. Comfy bed (however two singles to make double). Helpful staff.

Good location and very friendly staff.

Brilliant hotel with friendly, helpful front of house staff. Good rooms with curtains unlike some others in the area. Breakfast room is first class with many different meals on the menu all waited on.

Old wooden toilet seat with permanent smell of urine. Uncontralable mixing of hot and cold trickling water flow in the bath gave the worst possible shower experience. I could write an entire book on what was not good about this hotel but I will conclude with my front office experience. The receptionists quoted us a 95 uk pounds cab ride to Gatwick. We opted to do it on our own and arranged for an excellent service at 54 pounds.

Old world looking, decent sized rooms. Beds are not that comfy. Near all the museums and other attractions. Okay breakfast.

I booked for a twin bed and got double bed with not option for change. They didn't give another key either. I asked for receipt of my payment and they couldn't do it. I had booked for breakfast but they told me I needed to pay and when I said I would pay twice they came with a paper to show me what they were charging (the receipt I asked) but said they couldn't give it to me. Only the person who did check out for me was polite and welcoming. I felt it was a very uncomfortable atmosphere. I book it because it was a bit more expensive and looked good in pictures but next time I will reed more reviews.

Hotel is in a great location — 5 mins walk from South Kensington tube stop and from the National History Museum, more like 10 for the V&A. Stayed one night, staff were very friendly and helpful, and the "comsumables" in the room (towels sheets etc) were clean and crisp, simple and well presented. The room itself didnt live up to these standards though, long overdue a refurbishment, and the bathroom needs a deep clean — very scaled up and cracked/grotty in places. Fine for my one night stay on business but wouldnt return for pleasure.

Nice little hotel. For London fair prices. Clean and tidy. Good location.

Don't stay here if you want to get a good night sleep! Room was small but adequate, if you are a larger person, beware you might not be able to use the shower. There is no bar, so don't bother looking for one, the "bar" is a fridge in the corner of reception with limited supply or in the hotel opposite. The biggest issue is the noise! The windows are old single pane with no additional glazing which are permanently open due to an extractor pipe from the dehumidifier in the room, weird! If you get a room on the street side you will not sleep. Beware of the lift too, it is very small and slow, it broke when I stayed so had to use the stairs to the 3rd floor. I didn't mind but if you had restricted mobility it could be a challenge! On the bright side, the sheets and towels were clean and the bed was comfy. Would I stay here again, never!

Great price and location but very poor experience. The beds are incredibly stiff and you can feel the springs. The pillows are super thin and uncomfortable. You can't open the window and the portable A/C is so loud you can't sleep. And one of the days the water just stopped working entirely until the afternoon. But staff were nice and again great location.

This hotel needs some serious upgrades to its water delivery (The hotel water is not safe for drinking) and the matresses need replacing. Great part of London though!

Great location, friendly staff, and nice rooms.

It was adequate. Mice in our room and electricity couldn't handle multiple plugs. Pretty run down. Staff were friendly.

It was a convenient way out of the city to get to the airport and in very nice location. Other than that, I would not recommend. Rooms were so small and service was not great. 2 different people told us and "checked on the computer" that our breakfast would be included even though we originally didn't book it so we just had 2 bites of terrible eggs and burnt toast one morning and they ended up trying to charge us upon check out. The staff seemed very confused and trouble understanding English. Our TV didn't work, beds were super firm, and the hair dryer also didn't work.

Hotel a little dated, but friendly staff and very convenient location to visit the city.

My husband and I and our 2 college age kids spend 2 nights at the Gainsborough Hotel. The location was perfect, very close to the South Kensingtion underground station that made getting around the city so easy. The neighborhood had some great restaurants. Lara at the front desk was so helpful about our sight seeing plans. She had wonderful ideas! The room was not huge and was definitely dated but we expected that in London with our budget. The place had character. The room was clean and well cared for. We enjoyed our stay.

Excellent service. Great location, right next to the Natural History Museum. Just a few minutes walk from South Kensington tube station.

As I lie here at 4 am having tried to get to sleep starting at 8 pm I feel now is the time to review the room. Despite the lovely looking rooms on the website is was presented with a shoe box that has a broken window and central heating that is stuck on max. As for the staff they lack any form of social charm and have only acted as further salt on the wound. I seriously doubt that this is a four star hotel and would strongly advise against staying here unless you like stains on you bed. I just wish I could give 0 stars.

The worst hotel ever in London! Dirty floor and wallpaper. Leak from the roof in front of my room door. Air-conditioning system with dismantled connection to the window so a big 20cm diameter open circled hole in the window in winter. Dirty room in general. Rotten wood window in the 2 m2 bathroom with mould growing on the walls. The bedroom itself must be 2m x 3m at best. Paper-thin walls to ensure you hear your neighbours speaking or snoring all night. Only the breakfast is average. All of this for over 120 euros! Do not go there!

Good location, tired rooms.

I wish I could give this place 0 stars. It's run by a lunatic and a thief who tried to charge twice for the room.

Superb service in a beautiful English tradition hotel.

Have to agree with negative reviews. The stuff was not service minded at all. They were talking loudly early Sunday morning outside of my room I asked to keep quiet it lasted just a few minutes they were loud again. No wi fi. Arrived around 11 asked for early check in. Was offered to pay fifty pounds for that! Outrageous.

The pros of this hotel are mainly its location and its classic look. The cons are numerous. Namely extremely poor sound isolation (from the street and between rooms), unattentive staff (especially at breakfast, when they apparently only staff inexperienced interns), and expensive room rates. I stayed here for three nights, and I wouldn't go back.

Worst hotel ever! In the pitcures it looks like the hotel is a charming victorian hotel but when you get there you realize it's problably FROM the victorian era. It smells really bad, and it's dirty everywhere! We checked in and stayed for one hour (it took one hour to book another hotel) and then we checked out. We got no refound and had already paid for three nights. The staff is ignorant and not service minded at all. do not book this hotel.

For afternoon tea there is no where else to go. They will bring a 20 page menu of tea! And they are more than happy for you to try as many as you want. The food is amazing, and if you want more of anything they have no problem in bringing it. Don't be fooled by the lemon curd, it isn't cream, it is delicious though.

Pros: Convenient location for visiting Imperial College (which is what I was doing). Courteous staff. Rooms clean and without too much street noise. Nice lobby. Good continental breakfast. (I didn't try their full English breakfast. ) Cons: Rooms very small. Internet not included, and turned out to be *very* expensive, starting at 4 pounds sterling for 30 minutes of Wi-Fi.